Offense Leads to Sweep of Tritons

SAN DIEGO -- The No. 1 Cougars made quick work of UC San Diego, defeating the Tritons 3-0 (30-16, 30-23, 30-19) Thursday to improve to 11-2 overall and 9-2 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. With the loss, the Tritons fell to 1-11 overall and 0-8 in the MPSF.

The match, which lasted one hour and 12 minutes, was the 19th meeting between the teams. BYU is now 19-0 against UC San Diego and have swept the Tritons 15 times.

"We played very well and played a lot of guys, a lot of guys that need experience," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "Our one problem tonight was our serving. We served harder but we missed too many."

Despite playing without starting setter Rob Neilson, who sat out to recover from sore knees, BYU was dominant offensively. With Brian Congelliere and Chip Neff guiding the attack, the Cougars hit .573 (50-7-75), a season high, including .760 (19-0-25) in game one.

Taylor Evans led BYU with 13 kills while hitting a career-high .765. Yosleyder Cala and Russell Holmes added eight kills each and hit .667 and .778, respectively. Holmes also led the team with five blocks. Congelliere had 32 assists while playing games one and two while Neff had 12 assists in game three.

The Tritons struggled offensively, hitting .012 (25-24-85) and were led by Mike Reuter's six kills. Brenden Bowe was second on the team with five kills.

In game one, the score was tied 4-4 before BYU went on a 6-1 run to take an insurmountable lead. With the score 18-12 in favor of BYU, the Cougars outscored the Tritons 12-4 to win, 30-16. BYU did not record a hitting error the entire game while UC San Diego hit .071.

The Cougars jumped out to another big lead in game two at 17-8 but the Tritons managed to cut into the lead, getting within six at 19-13. UC San Diego could not get any closer, however, and BYU won 30-23 while hitting .481.

The third was more of the same as the Cougars hit well and ran away when the Tritons got close. BYU hit .478 compared to .000 for UC San Diego.

The Cougars and Tritons will meet again on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. in RIMAC Arena. BYU will look to extend its win streak to four matches.